End the trip with a little meaning.

For our last full day in Israel I knew that we needed to add in some chesed activity. We were supposed to pick fruits with Leket earlier, but those plans changed as the fields we were supposed to go to changed and we could no longer make it. There are several other organizations that offer volunteer opportunities. I was looking for one that would be not only meaningful, but also have at least some element of fun. The obvious choice is Pantry Packers however they need at least 6 participants over the age of 6 in order to secure a time slot. We don't even have 6 in our group to begin with, so I had to find something else. There is an organization called Yad Eliezer which I am familiar with back home. Once a year our local neighborhood hosts a mega bake sale to fundraise for this organization. I have baked for them for several years and hope to continue. One of their branches goals is to provide formula for babies to parents who need it. (Don't worry, they aren't anti breast-feeding or anything, but there are babies who need to be fed, and that is who they help.) I contacted them to see if they had any volunteer slots open for us and they were more than happy to accommodate our little group including our toddler.

Yad Eliezer's food packing warehouse is in the heart of Jerusalem in a very religious neighborhood. Once we arrived and figured out how to enter the warehouse, we were escorted upstairs to watch a brief video on all the different types of assistance Yad Eliezer provides for various needy people. Afterwards we went down stairs to the conveyor belt. A man was assigned to help us pack boxes of toiletries and food necessities like pasta, flour, sugar, canned vegetables etc. They had a specific way of filling the boxes in order to maximize the items placed in the box. Once all of the staples were taken care of he showed us large crates of random food and told us to fill any of the empty spaces in the boxes with anything we find in the crates. My sons decided that there are probably more than a few families who are receiving the boxes that probably have children who would appreciate a snack, so they sifted through the crate finding cookies, chips, bamba, bissili, pretzels, chocolate etc. basically anything that they themselves would want to eat. Of course they added in more things like pasta, beans and rice, because children do not live on cake alone (contrary to popular belief!). The final step was the kids favorite part. You slide the boxes down the line into an automatic taping machine. Over and over we sent our full boxes through the machine until our job was done. Yossi, the man in charge video taped us while we worked. He also asked us to do some funny moves while he videoed. He showed us a funny video that he put together of our time there. My kids had a good time. It wasn't hard work, the job we were doing was obviously going to help several families, Yossi was entertaining and made the food packing a lot more fun than it sounds.

After all of that handling of food and running around the warehouse, we had worked up an appetite for lunch. Mendel was intent on getting a Bavarian Cream from Cofix (one of the few "different" pareve desserts around). I knew there were many Cofix stores in Yerushalaim, but I didn't know exactly where one was from where we were. I typed it into WAZE and let the app guide us. At first it took us to Ben Yehuda Street. But after driving around for about 20 minutes looking for a place to park, I gave up and navigated us back to Mamilla Mall parking. We were now experts at walking through the mall, through Jaffa Gate, through the Old City and right to Cofix. Mendel got his bureka fix, his Bavarian cream and an ice blended Lemonade. Meir savored his ice blended coffee knowing that there is NO WAY he would be getting one back home. Atara had fallen asleep as we bumped our way through the old city with the stroller, but I got her the pasta that was such a hit last time.
We then headed down to Misgav Ledach road to the Temple Institute Museum. We signed up for an English tour. We weren't allowed to use our cameras in the museum, so you will just have to take my word for it... This museum is all about recreating the vessels and the articles used in the Holy Temple so that when Mashiach comes everything will be ready and Kohanim can get right to work with the service. The only other people in our group was a man and girl (about 9 years old). The man was probably an older brother, but he must have been an Israeli citizen because he had with him a GIANT weapon, which is quite normal to see in Israel, but surprising for us still. We went through the rooms of the museum while a narrated recording played and highlighted what we were supposed to be looking at. In the last room there was a movie depicting modern architectural renderings of what the temple mount could look like. It was interesting to see it done with the people in the drawings wearing modern clothing and not turbans and tunics. While we were enjoying the film all of a sudden there was a loud BANG! Of course our first thought was the guys gun must have gone off! But no, he just dropped his phone. Afterwards, one of my kids remarked how they really like having this guy with us as they felt very safe knowing some one in our group was fully armed.
I had my kids chose their last Minion Popsicle of the trip (even though it was quite cold out) and then we wandered around the Old City a little more. The kids chose their souvenirs and we made our way back to have one final dinner and hang out with their cousins.
I can't believe our trip has come to an end. Meir is already planning what we should do and repeat for his bar mitzvah, so until next time. Lehitraot.